The Rules of Perspective

by Adam Thorpe

You will not fail to be moved to pity by this story of ordinary lives ruined by the banality of evil and the corruption of human artistic sensibility. This is not a story of heroism and glory, but a poignant telling, from various perspectives, of how civilisation disintegrates in war time - and how the only redemption for humanity lies in compassion for one's fellow man and the indomitable will to survive.

Extract

He was still holding the Paul Burck painting upright in front of him, resting the bottom edge on his knees, hiding his shame. He gazed into the painting's airless, sylvan depths where the muddy track climbed and vanished. What a discovery that was, the rules of perspective! Or were they laws? No, Alberti took the laws and made rules out of them. The rule comes after the law. Three dimensions out of two dimensions, all because of rules that came out of laws that came out of where? The eye? Nature? God?